The marine angelfish family Pomacanthidae is, generally speaking, a very well-understood group. These are some of the most colorful and charismatic fishes found in reef ecosystems, and so they have naturally attracted more than their fair share of taxonomic attention.…
First Photos of a Rare Indonesian Cup Coral, Trochocyathus cooperi
Cup corals are a fascinating group, but one that is almost never available in the aquarium trade. If you’ve ever encountered this common name before, it was likely misapplied to one of the regularly available dendrophylliids, like Tubastraea, Turbinaria, and…
In Defense of Rudie’s Wrasses
Rudie Kuiter is an Australian ichthyologist who has published extensively on Indo-Pacific reef fishes. Over the past half-century, he has described 56 new species, including a variety of wrasses, angelfishes, butterflyfishes, cardinalfishes, assessors, and, in particular, seahorses and pipefishes, though…
Cirrhilabrus heterodon: valid species or nah?
Let’s get deep in the weeds with fairy wrasse biogeography, specifically, the Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura group. In 2022, Kai et al enlarged this group with the description of a pair of colorful new species, C. chaliasi and C. aquamarinus, both of…
Fiji’s Undescribed Stonogobiops Shrimpgoby
The year is 1977. Star Wars is a box office sensation, Billy Joel is topping the charts with his multi-platinum album The Stranger, and the King of Rock & Roll, Elvis Presley, is found dead in his Graceland bathroom, but…
The Secret Nazi History of the Lyretail Anthias
In recent years, we’ve seen the classification of Pseudanthias slowly get whittled down in the light of molecular and morphological revisions. This has resulted in the expansion of Nemanthias from 1 to 6 species, the recognition of Mirolabrichthys as a…
4.0 Cirrhilabrus laboutei & the Origins of Fairy Wrasse Diversity
At last, we’ve reached the thrilling conclusion to this comprehensive review of Fairy Wrasse evolution, and it’s time to once more dwell upon the topic of the group’s origins. As we’ve previously discussed, this enormously diverse genus can be comfortably categorized…
Sea Cucumber Pretends It’s A Coral
Sometimes it seems like every creature living on a coral reef has at least one species which mimics it. Take, for instance, this juvenile sea cucumber, Thelenota ananas, which has mastered the art of being Pocillopora. Question is… can it…
Xynosphaera: the Parasitic Nephthea Shrimp
Green Nephthea is one of the most colorful and popular soft corals in the aquarium hobby, but most aquarists (and scientists) have never heard of the curious crustacean which calls it home. The above illustration [credit: Bruce, 1994] depicts Xynosphaera colemani,…
Omegophora pufferfish appears in Japan
In our recent article on rare dogface pufferfishes, we were able to cover every species except for the one which inspired the article. The image below is of an Australian pufferfish which has recently made its way to Blue Harbor in Japan,…